Examining Lucas' plan for Presidio museum

Published 3:42 pm, Friday, October 25, 2013

The members of the Presidio Trust are going to make a monumental decision this fall about what to build on an 8-acre site facing San Francisco's Crissy Field.

I don't envy them.

It's not going to be easy to find a design that will to make everyone in this notoriously change-resistant city happy. At Thursday's Trust meeting, when the members accepted public comment on the three finalist proposals, sentiment was running nearly 2 to 1 against the highest-profile project, George Lucas' Cultural Arts Museum. I have to confess that I'm also unmoved by Lucas' plan. Unfortunately, Lucas and his organization haven't done much to assuage my concerns.

Lucas wants the Presidio site for a museum for his collection of "populist art." His proposal would come with $700 million from its founder. He envisions a Beaux Arts-style building for his collection of illustrations by Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell and his props from the famous "Star Wars" movies.

I'll freely admit that Lucas' collection is not to my taste - much of this stuff sounds like it might just as well have ended up at a garage sale. And I may not like his architectural style, either.

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Like many city residents, I need to be sold on the project's merits, because the real estate in question has the potential to be one of the city's most important public spaces. Whatever gets built on the site needs to be appropriate both visually and environmentally.

Just this week, Chronicle design critic John King suggested that the Palace of Fine Arts would be a perfect location for the Lucas collection because it already echoes his proposed design. It was a smart and reasonable idea, and reusing spaces is certainly good for the environment.

The reaction from the Lucas folks?

"It's a nonstarter," said David Perry, a spokesman for the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum. He noted that the Palace building has major water issues and added: "The type of museum that the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum will be is the type of museum that the world has never seen. It requires a brand new building."

OK then.

I am worried.

I really want something to be successful in the Presidio. Remember Don Fisher? The famously prickly Gap founder wanted to build a dramatic contemporary art center not far away from this site, at the Main Post. The design was interesting and the art was good, but people thought everything looked too big, too egoistic.

People were worried about the environmental impact, about the scale, about the traffic - above all, that the proposed Fisher design seemed too much about a temple to the Fishers, not about a space for the community.

After facing relentless criticism, the Fishers withdrew the design in 2009; their art went to SFMOMA, which is closed for the next two years while it builds out a space to fit it all.

I don't like the way that Don Fisher was treated - cities have to grow and change - but the Fisher debacle offered a clear lesson for the future captains of industry who follow them: If you want to build something big on a prized public space in San Francisco, you have to get the public on board.

I'm not sure whether George Lucas has gotten that lesson.

Lucas has complained about the Presidio Trust members to the New York Times, saying: "They made us jump through hoops." (Last I checked, "jumping through hoops" is what you have to do when you want to build a big museum.)

He's threatened to take all of this stuff to Chicago. (And? Maybe the nerds of that city need somewhere to go, but the ones here have more than enough places to converge already.)

So here we are.

Listen, I'm willing to be convinced that there's a place for a Temple of Baby Boomer Dreams in San Francisco. But this attitude isn't helping.

And I don't think I'm alone. This is San Francisco, and people's concerns are only going to get louder the closer we get to decision time.